


the wolf and the lamb (will graze together)

by Ford_Ye_Fiji



Series: and love will be your teacher [6]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Fluff, Fluffy, Gen, Iroh and Ozai are background peeps here, Progress!!, Sibling Bonding, Wee bit of angst, actually this one is pretty, im too tired to tag properly, ummm - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-23 19:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21086588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ford_Ye_Fiji/pseuds/Ford_Ye_Fiji
Summary: The impact of the ceasefire.





	the wolf and the lamb (will graze together)

Zuko stood at Iroh's right hand when the end of the war was announced to the Fire Nation. Looking down on the sea of faces, his people, he saw confusion and outrage, shock and relief, uncertainty and fear. Ozai's eyes glittered in the light from Iroh's left, Ursa and Azula quiet beside him. 

Zuko edged closer to Iroh as Ozai's eyes drifted over him in passing, a flicker of anger there. Zuko wasn’t hiding from him necessarily, he wasn’t a coward. He just... felt safer away from him. 

The proclamation was over not long after and the murmur of the crowd grew into a low rumble, reminding Zuko of the sea. 

He missed the sea. 

He almost missed his cue to follow his father out too. He stumbled over his heavy formal robes and he hunched his shoulders, almost expecting Azula to snicker at him. She didn’t and, when he caught her eye, she sniffed haughtily and looked away. 

The royal family proceeded back to the large red ornamental doors to the palace. Zuko couldn’t help but glance back at his people as they were led inside. 

They looked lost. 

* * *

The news of the Fire Nation's  <strike>surrender</strike> ceasefire, spread like wildfire among the four nations. (Or three, now, rather.) People were understandably wary of this new Fire Lord and his intentions. He was, after all, the Dragon of the West, the man who’d led the infamous six hundred day siege of Ba Sing Se, the only person to ever breach that great city's outer wall. Public opinion was wary, waiting for the other pin to drop. 

* * *

Zuko pattered down the steps, nearly bumping into General Qiao. The General, without even looking down, snapped an angry, "Watch where you’re going!" 

Zuko, pressed up against the wall, watched him go, brows furrowed. 

He didn’t think General Qiao had ever gone down to the lesser storage parts of the palace. Or else, he’d never seen him down here. Actually, Zuko wasn’t technically supposed to be down here either, but the scullery maid, Xi-Ling, had told him how to catch a cat-owl- which required a special earth kingdom import, catnip, that apparently was somewhere stored away. 

He continued down the hallway, passing the room the General had come from. Before the door swung shut he could’ve sworn he’d seen some other of the men from the war room, and possibly Ozai- 

He shook his head. 

It couldn’t be. 

Ozai had told him many times that being down here was shameful, disrespectful of his status and title as a prince of the fire nation, and that mixing with the servants brought dishonor on his family. Iroh had told him that he was supposed to know his people, that a Prince wasn’t better than a peasant, that both could learn from the other. 

His father seemed to be the wiser of the two in every matter so far. So he’d elected to trust his judgment over Ozai’s. 

Zuko continued his search for the catnip, brushing away the lingering feeling that insisted something was wrong. 

* * *

Zuko watched Azula clamber up the tree like a spider-monkey. Zuko's brows furrowed anxiously, "Azula, what if you fall down?" 

"Don’t be a sissy, Zuzu!" 

He groaned, "I thought I told you not to call me that!" He was already shucking off his shoes to join her in the lofty flowering branches. The bark was warm under his feet, touched by the sun, the air pleasant with an almost constant breeze. Overall, it was perfect weather for tree climbing. He hadn’t done it in ages. He couldn’t seem to remember why. 

A few minutes later, he’d climbed nearly as high as his sister, but not as quickly or gracefully. Azula laughed, throwing her arms up into the air, the wind whipping the fringes of her hair away, reveling in the feeling of freedom. 

Zuko looked down and promptly remembered why he hadn't climbed a tree in so long. The last time he’d done so, Azula had shoved him off and then told Ozai he’d fallen. That had been about three years ago, when he’d been nine. Zuko swallowed and clung just a little tighter to the tree branch, fingers digging into the bark. 

Azula turned to face him, "Look how far above everything we are!" 

Zuko swallowed, voice shaky, "Y- yeah." 

Azula rolled her eyes, "C'mon, Zuzu, you’re so boring. Live a little!" 

Zuko shot her a glare, "And have you push me off again? No thanks." 

Azula huffed, "No, dummy." She stuck out her lower lip, thinking about the duality of her parents. Father said she should be feared. Mother said not to break her toys. She said being loved was better than being feared. Father said love was a weakness, like Zuzu, clinging to his tree branch and turning pale at the sight of the ground below them. 

Something in her relished his fear. 

But there was also something deep inside the struggling embers that had once made up her heart, that wanted him to trust her. She could scarcely remember the days when they were both small. Her memories always seemed tainted butter yellow of that time, but she does remember the trust and what mother called love. 

Azula's eyes narrowed. She wanted that trust back, "I promise I won’t push you, Zuzu." 

Zuko's brows furrowed, clearly debating her unusually decisive promise, "You really won’t push me again?"

Azula shook her head and with great effort did not toss out the words that jumped to her head, 'No sense in playing the same trick twice, Zuzu.' Instead she said quietly, "Promise." 

Zuko slowly, carefully, unwound his arms from the branch, clinging to the trunk with his knees. Azula leaned into the wind and held her hands up to the sky, in a parody of when the Fire Sages praised Agni. Zuko swallowed and let the breeze carry him. 

It was as freeing as his sister had said it was. 

A wide grin split his face, "I feel like I’m flying!" He laughed, carefree, feeling the wind against his face and Agni's warmth at his back. 

Azula blinked, wide-eyed in the face of his pure unadulterated exultation. 

It was infectious. She felt an uncharacteristic grin on her own lips, and whooping, she threw her hands up in the air again, feeling like she was soaring. 

It was her first smile without a trace of cruelty in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is here fam: https://ford-ye-fiji.tumblr.com/


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